Renewal of the Church

       A mistake made by many is the think of the word mission as meaning work carried on somewhere else.   So they hope to send missionaries abroad but carry on no evangelism in their own area.   They send money to Liberia and the Philippines (as they should) but do not consider reaching our to the racial and national groups in their own area.   So, it is not unfair to say that some of you may have a theory of missionary work which “passes the buck.”   The parish does not conceive of itself as a mission station, but sends money on to the diocese fulfilling its responsibility in that way; and then sometimes a diocese passes on the total responsibility to the General Church; and then the General Church passes the money overseas (and we should send more than we do), for that is the only way we can fulfill a great part of our Lord’s command; but we must also see that the failure to be a missionary in our own area hurts the work abroad.   How can...

       Let me now suggest at least the beginnings of a missionary policy which, I believe, could lead our Church to rapid growth; and, for the reasons which I have stated, this should begin, but not end, at home.   These things are, of course, in addition to prayer and study. Every Christian shall be taught that it is his duty to win others to the Lord .   That great missionary bishop of India, Azariah of Dornakal, taught this, and built a vital and effective diocese ina   few years.   He knew that the missionary command is part of the Christian life, and that no adult should be baptized and confirmed unless he sees this.   After a baptism or confirmation the person receiving the rite would place is hand on his own head and say, “Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel.”   Each one was to reach one.   Each one in his own way was to spread the Gospel.   What happened in Dornakal can happen anywhere when we see that the task of th...

  Every Christian shall be taught to work for the Church with his hands.  If we do not have the funds to hire someone to paint, clean, build, or repair God’s House, then let Christians do it themselves.  Let it be taught as a policy in order that fine fellowships may be developed and no House of God look as if it were not loved.                There shall be developed a ministry of the laity.   In such a ministry laymen shall teach, visit, witness, and take part in every service of the Church. The task before us is too great for the clergy, and the great untapped reservoir of manpower is the laity.   We have, without knowing it, drifted into “clergy religion” in which the clergyman is not the leader of a working, witnessing congregation, but rather the man who works for the congregation.             The great task of the Church today is b...

  We have dealt with some observations on the missionary enterprise, and closed with five practical suggestions which, I believe, cold bring new life to our Church.   Remember that we must venture out; and that when the Holy Spirit moves in the Church, many old and sedate assumptions will be broken. Remember that God gives His Spirit to those who fight His battles, and not to armchair critics.   We turn now from these outer observations to inner ones to see before the altar the meaning of mission and the reasons for missions. JESUS IS LORD Let us look up to the Divine Son of God, the Incarnate Word, and see the motion of His life and the meaning of His acts.   He came into this world from above this world to bring it salvation; and He bears an authority, which we see in faith, greater than any authority of earth.   We proclaim Him King of kings, and state that at His name every knee shall bow.   To call Him Lord means to obey Him; and if we do not striv...

  We turn now from these outer observations to inner ones to see before the altar the meaning of mission and the reasons for missions. THE CHURCH IS GOD’S INSTRUMENT Consider next the Church.   As Anglicans, we pride ourselves on our tradition, and tradition rightly understood is our life;   but the danger to Anglicanism is an over veneration of tradition, the making of it into an idol, so that we sometimes worship tradition rather than the Living God.   To look back is right, as Christians we must look back, but onlyprovided that we look ahead as hard as we look back, and that we look back to our tradition in order that God may speak to us through it about our present task.   It is this eagerness about our destiny and our task which one sometimes misses in Anglicanism.   Instead of being frontier fighters serving our Lord, we sometimes appear timid, concerned with what is respectable, concerned with good taste. If our destiny as a Church is not clear...

  The Church is God’s Instrument The Church is that body to which has been entrusted the bearing of the Gospel to all men, the conversion of the world.   Never forget that the Church is God’s instrument existing for the sake of the wide world around us.   When the Church is truly itself, it is filled with a passion for souls; and it is restless and filled with longing when it sees sheep without a shepherd.   It is an army with banners marching out of the past into the future.   It is the Body of Christ in which His Spirit live and through which he carries on the salvation of men.   Missions are not an appendage, a hobby.   The Church is a mission, and if it is not a mission, it is not the Church.   If Christ was the divine beachhead, the Church is the army of Christ that extends the beachhead.   We lose the finest souls if there is a preoccupation with the past, and miss the great opportunity of teaching a hopeful task to a world without ho...

  The Power of the World   It is, next, certainly clear to us that the great ills of the world are caused by pride and self-will, combined with the little perspectives of men.   The world puts itself before God, either individually, or corporately in family, class, race, or nation; and the result is the breaking of community, and anarchy.   But do not for a moment underestimate the power of the world, for it can reach its hand into the pew or chancel and corrupt the Church.   There are guilds, parishes, and parties which seem to think chiefly of themselves; and when this happens, the salt has lost its savour, the devil has conquered, and we bear no salvation to men.   We may sugar the self-will of our guild or our parish with the noble language of the Prayer Book, and we may light candles all around it;   but it is still the self-will ( my guild, my parish) that refuses to consider God’s great will for His people.   This can occur on a local...